County profile · official public datasets

Houston County, MN

172 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 64% rated Good, 33.7% Fair, 2.3% Poor.

172
Public bridges: 64%
Good condition: 2.3%
Poor condition

The verdict

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.

Houston County posts a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.

Top 28%
lowest Poor share in state: 2.3%
Poor-condition share: 172
public highway bridges: 1990
avg year built

Poor is an FHWA condition category from the lowest applicable component rating (4 or below), not a live crossing-safety or closure decision. Rankings cover counties with at least five public highway bridges.

Houston County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Houston County ranks #24 of 87 Minnesota counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 2.3%). Houston County, Minnesota contains 172 public highway bridges. Roughly 64% are rated “Good,” 33.7% “Fair,” and 2.3% “Poor.” Poor means the lowest applicable deck, superstructure, substructure, or culvert rating is 4 or below on the 0–9 NBI scale. It is a condition category, not a live safety or closure decision.

Responsible agencies inspect covered bridges on risk-based intervals under current NBIS rules and submit inventory data to FHWA annually. The list below shows every NBI-tracked bridge in the county. Use the “Sort by” controls to change the ordering, and click any row for its reported inspection date, traffic count, and condition fields.

Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory. See methodology for full definitions.

Total bridges

172

Public highway bridges in Houston County

Good condition

64%

110 of 172 rated 7-9

Fair condition

33.7%

58 of 172 rated 5-6

Poor condition

2.3%

4 of 172 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#24 of 87

Among Minnesota counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better

Condition distribution

Share of 172 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

64% (110)

Fair

33.7% (58)

Poor

2.3% (4)

Houston County's Poor-condition bridges carry 3,964 vehicle crossings a day

That is 2% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 2.3% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 991 crossings a day against 843 for a Good-condition one. A Poor rating is a condition category, not a closure or a live safety judgement; it means the lowest applicable component rating is 4 or below.

Computed over the 172 of 172 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

15.7% of Houston County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

27 of the 172 bridges with a recorded construction year were built in 1974 or earlier. Age alone is not a defect: a well-maintained older bridge can rate Good, and 64% of this county's inventory does. Even so, this older cohort is the population from which future Poor ratings are drawn, which is why the age profile below matters alongside the condition split above.

Cutoff derives from the 2024 release year minus a 50-year design life. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

One structure carries 66.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

MN 26 over STREAM, built 1956, carries 2,636 vehicles a day, the most of any Poor-rated structure here. The county's Poor-condition exposure is concentrated rather than evenly spread, so the 4-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 3,964 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1900s

1
1910s

1
1920s

1
1930s

6
1940s

3
1950s

9
1960s

1
1970s

35
1980s

17
1990s

20
2000s

39
2010s

34
2020s

5

What this shows Construction peaked in the 2000s, when 39 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 22.7% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 15 to 24 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1990) matches the Minnesota average (1986).

How Houston County compares with Minnesota's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Minnesota counties nearest Houston County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 2.3% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1990 against a peer-group mean of 1984 is 6 years newer.

Showing the 5 closest of 86 Minnesota counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Houston County and the 5 Minnesota counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Dodge County	177	46.9%	44.1%	9%	1983
Lac qui Parle County	174	73%	19.5%	7.5%	1986
Houston County (this page)	172	64%	33.7%	2.3%	1990
Pine County	171	63.2%	32.2%	4.7%	1987
Itasca County	170	50%	44.7%	5.3%	1985
Watonwan County	167	69.5%	29.9%	0.6%	1978

Each share is of that county's own total tracked bridges; peers are the counties with 5 or more bridges whose inventory size is closest to Houston County's. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

Nationwide counties with similar inventory size or average build year

Two NBI-derived peer sets for Houston County, both outside Minnesota so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside MN (172 bridges here).

Colbert County, AL · 172 bridges
Marshall County, AL · 172 bridges
Moultrie County, IL · 172 bridges
Newton County, IN · 172 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside MN (1990 here).

Maricopa County, AZ · avg 1990 · 2,847 bridges
Tarrant County, TX · avg 1990 · 2,617 bridges
Fairfax County, VA · avg 1990 · 751 bridges
Guilford County, NC · avg 1990 · 736 bridges

Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.

All 172 Good 110 Fair 58 Poor 4

Good-condition bridges (110)

Sort:

Houston County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Houston County's Poor-condition bridges carry 3,964 vehicle crossings a day

15.7% of Houston County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 66.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Houston County compares with Minnesota's closest counties by inventory size

Nationwide counties with similar inventory size or average build year

Similar inventory size

Similar average build year

Good-condition bridges (110)

MN 26

T 410

T 95

T 286

T 286

CR 249

CSAH 4

T 281

CSAH 17

CR 249

T 281

T 227

T 362

T 85

CSAH 4

T 319

T 117

T 126

SPR 1

CSAH 26

T 185

CSAH 20

CSAH 20

T 45

T 158

T 89

T 292

T 225

T 38

T 195

T 266

T 221

T 221

CSAH 12

T 233

CSAH 26

CSAH 21

MN 16

T 108

T 281

T 362

T 410

US 61

T 265

CSAH 7

T 193

T 233

T 3

T 105

CSAH 10

Related